Animal shelters across the state are participating in a campaign to stop euthanization for one day, and nearly 3,000 people have signed a petition aimed for Gov. Susana Martinez's desk.

However, Noah's Ark Animal Shelter in Carlsbad has rejected a part in the movement so far. Director Angela Cary said there's more to the campaign than there appears to be.

The Just One Day campaign is part of a larger effort led by No Kill New Mexico, an animal rights advocacy group, to get New Mexico communities to commit to ending euthanization - what they claim is the largest cause of death among would-be pets across the country. June 11 has been selected as the day when no euthanizations will take place in the participating shelters.

And while it all sounds like a good thing, Cary said no euthanization as a concrete rule is a hard thing to commit to.

"Being the only shelter here, it's a difficult thing to say no euthanasia, period," Cary said. "I understand the point behind it (Just One Day), but I don't understand the arbitrary day. Anything that comes in on that day, you have to guarantee that it won't be euthanized in the future. It's not just that you would have to put it off for tomorrow."

Cary said this would even apply to a seriously injured or mean animal. If it were to come into the shelter on June 11, Cary said according to the campaign and the petition, the animal would need to be kept alive despite the circumstances.

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"We have to guarantee that we won't euthanize them at all," Cary said.

Cary said the issue is not the lack of wanting to save animals' lives. As things stand now, Cary and the shelter volunteers do not euthanize every day and have no set standard or strict timeline for when to euthanize an animal.

"It really depends on the animal and how full we are," Cary said. And since the dog kennels are usually a lot fuller than the cat room, hard-to-adopt dogs are usually the ones whose lives are ended.

Cary said she would love for Noah's Ark to become a no-kill shelter of healthy and adoptable animals, but right now, she's finding the public mentality to be an obstacle.

"No matter what we do with spay and neuter (awareness), they just keep breeding and dumping animals that are not very adoptable," Cary said.
But ending euthanization for lack of space is one of Cary's long-term goals. She currently works with rescue organizations and pet foster homes in the state and as far as Colorado to save as many animals as possible.

Once an animal is placed in one of those two situations, their no-kill status is guaranteed.